Twin tries to forgive brother's killer

The murderer accepts a plea deal to serve at least 20 years in prison

Gary Morishima says he will try to forgive the man who slew his twin brother, because it is the Christian thing to do.

"We are Christians -- we will try to forgive but to forget is hard," he said yesterday shortly after his brother's killer, Micah Kanahele, was sentenced to a 20-year term.

Circuit Judge Michael Town accepted a plea agreement in which Kanahele, 25, of Waipahu, would serve a minimum of 20 years for gunning down Greg Morishima in October 2003 and Guylan Nuuhiwa in an unrelated shooting a week later.

After two trials, Kanahele was convicted last year of manslaughter for opening fire on Morishima after he told three masked gunmen who confronted him in the carport of a neighbor's Aiea home that they were early for Halloween.

Three other men tried with Kanahele were acquitted at the second trial.

Last month, Kanahele pleaded no contest to -- and was found guilty of -- second-degree murder for shooting Nuuhiwa over a quarter-pound of marijuana in the parking lot of the Pearl City Shopping Center.

Under the agreement, Kanahele waived any right to appeal his manslaughter conviction in Morishima's slaying. But if the parole board orders him to serve more than 20 years, he has the option of withdrawing his plea in the Nuuhiwa murder and going to trial.

Kanahele's sentencing capped a prosecution in the Morishima case that the defense alleged was plagued with shoddy police work and pitted police detectives against each other.

Morishima said he is satisfied that prosecutors did their best in obtaining a conviction, but in the end it was up to the jury.

The plea deal at least guarantees Kanahele will be put away for 20 years, he said, "but is that justification for killing someone?"

Richard Hoke, Kanahele's attorney, has said they hope the parole board will set his minimum at 20 years.

Rosalino Ramos, one of Kanahele's co-defendants in the Morishima killing, is also charged with first-degree robbery in the Nuuhiwa case and is set for trial April 17.

Town dismissed a second-degree murder charge against Ramos in the Morishima case last month after juries in two separate trials could not reach verdicts against him and two other co-defendants, Jason Rumbawa and Anthony Brown.